About Me

Born and raised Scotland and travelled extensively. Duke of Caledon Argylle in exile, Earl of Primbroke, Knight of the White Lion, Colonel of the Caledon Militia (ret).
Traveller and explorer, sometime musical presenter and flying enthusiast.
Now living in New Babbage with his beloved wife Christine. Owner and tailor of quality gentlemen's outfitter Pearse'd & Cut

Sunday, 19 July 2009

It's that time of year when people start to breath a sigh of relief that SLRFL is over for another 6 months. I'd say "year" but by February there will be people starting on about the 2010 event and kiosks and vendors and the rest of it will begin to appear again.

The guilt tripping has eased in recent times, or possibly my avoidance of most things RFL means I've not been around if it has happened.

Relay For Life is franchised to local cancer organisations around the world (yes they have to pay for the privilege to have an event with that name) but SLRFL (or Relay For Life in Second Life) is run under the banner of the American Cancer Society. Last year I upset a few people with my views on how SLRFL was being handled. Doing some reading on the ACS itself means I'm due to do it again. Tax reports for 2006 and 2007 say ACS CEO John R. Seffrin was paid over $1.1 million for his annual compensation package (of which over $500,000 was his salary). Not bad for a "not for profit" organisation. Especially when the US President is on a salary of $400K. There's also serious questions on how much of the money raised goes into cancer services. In 1992 The Wall Street Journal reported that some ACS chapters barely more than 10% of total revenue on actual cancer services.

For me though SLRFL is really a time for talented builders to indulge in some fantastical building bringing together a community spirit in putting on a display. The creativity and skill continues to blow me away each year. I was even convinced to help out with the New Babbage team's build despite my reservations about RFL in general.

The New Babbage Exhibition site.

The Port St. Christopher or "Babbage Mars" sim.

The Moon sim (There was a lot of moon influences this year)

Inside the domes

The art deco Metropolis build

Her Lyonesse's influence could be clearly seen

An impressive deco train.

Spinner's For Life giant Speaker is a multilevel dance club.

The Steelhead build

The American Frontier

Animated Dragon at the Armada Build

Giant sculpted hands

Camping anyone?

Best of SL Team build

Caledon Build

The machine working on a cure.

The RFL Wonders sim held a great collection of ancient monumentsColossus of Rhodes

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Acropolis

Hanging Gardens of Babylon with a pyramid in the background.

Tree of Life

The Angkor Wat temple perhaps?

A rather interesting Egyptian scheme

Purple Battlemechs.

I don't understand the significance of this build. I originally thought that the Twin Towers and the Tower Bridge may have been symbolic of two cities that had been the victim of suicide bombers...

...but the stones of Stonehenge at the foot of the Towers throw that theory out. I have no idea what all three landmarks have in common.

Memorial to the 40th anniversary of the first Lunar Landing.

The New York World's Fair inspired build.

A magnificent train at the Fort Wrangler build

Another Acropolis build.

The home of the Justice League

The Titan Tower.

RFL The Shire held one of my favourite builds.Bag End

The floor plan owes more to Karen Wynn Fonstad than to Peter Jackson. Very nicely done.

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comments:

Very nice pictures, Your Grace. I spent little time at the builds beyond the Steampunk ones, and some of those seemed quite interesting.

I hear you about the occasionally over-the-top rhetoric about RFL. The salary doesn't bother me in particular - the organization might be for charity, but that doesn't mean its employees should be volunteers, and there's a market for people who can successfully raise funds (the really good ones go on to become university presidents, where they vacuum cash from alumni). I'm sure there are better ways to donate for cancer research, but this one provides a fair amount of cameraderie amongst one's teammates, and allows builders to flex their imaginations to create nifty works. I've made my peace with RFL, though not the lag.